Torres del Paine Day 5 January 28 2012

Rio Seron

Lago Paine

Up early again as anticipating another long day to take us to Dickson camp. Distance is variously reported from 16 to 19.5 kms..... The weather is pretty good for traveling... Cool to start with moderate wind.... 

The trail takes us over a windswept  shoulder into Lago Paine valley, we feel at home... Its a very good trail, easy to follow with a few ups and downs. It is very dry country, we travel more than 10kms from Seron before we find a decent stream with water to refill bottles.... I have been filtering all our water, both in Chile and Argentina, probably unnecessary but for me, cheap insurance against nasty abdominal issues. At the water stop mosquitos are particularly ferocious, the stop is short. 

Glaciar Dickson

We have lunch a few kilometers farther in meadows in valley past Lago Paine, the views of Glaciar Dickson and associated peaks are stunning.

After 6 hours we arrive at Dickson camp. The GPS seems in better repair today, distance shows 18.5 kms. I have also been diligently tracking this route and checking in with my spot device daily. I have the spot turned on to track all day and supposedly it sends a message that records a location to display on shared tracking site. I find out after trip that this is only day it actually worked! It recorded 1 track location at Seron and 7near Dickson, the rest of the trip nothing, not even once was a check in message recorded. I observed similar service in Fitzroy area.... Seems service is a bit spotty,  I guess.... Wont be carrying this brick around anywhere outside North America again....

Dickson Camp

Dickson is a more upscale camp than Seron, complete with Parqua Guarda post, small hostel and store. There is even a large contingent of horses that apparently get you there and can take you on a side trip to Glaciar Dickson, as well, kayaks were available for touring on Lago Dickson....

I notice that my last pair of sun glasses are missing, used them less than 24 hours... I never see them again... now have lost 3 pairs and am without any more spares.... To stupid to own sunglasses I guess....

We see on the Parque announcement whiteboard that Circuito is Abierto... This looks to be very good news. With help from a Spanish speak American and a Parque da Guarda with a bit of English we find that John Gardner Paso and trail down to Glaciar Grey, along Lago Grey to Paine Grande Lodge at Lago Pehoe are indeed open.... Woohoo we don't have to slog back to Laguna Amargo the way we came, but can go to Lago Pehoe and exit by Catamaran.

Mosquitos are fierce here

The mosquitos are insufferable here, we elect to forego showers as they are somewhat open air, with saloon type doors that mosquitos do not respect.... Elaine brings out the ultimate head protection, a Colgan head netting, she swears it was effective, if not attractive. I hold mine back, it might get worse and then I would be in trouble....

On reflection later, I guess I didn't quite get the tent set up properly. We get some water in the low end, dripped in through vent, not tensioned enough on that end.... Not too big a deal, but large sleeping bag a bit wet in AM. That is not the worst equipment malfunction of the night. We purchased 2 Stephenson down air mattresses (DAMs) for this trip, light weight and with great insulation rating. To this point we had used for 7 nights, and they have been excellent.... I notice my mattress is not inflated enough and complain to Elaine who inflated them today- (her rookie night at this task, using a small 2 AAA battery powered pump). I refill the mattress, but it slowly deflates vindicating Elaines pump work. I have to reinflate a few hours later, still functional,although was not as comfy as before.... It rains fairly hard most of the night.....